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John Epps, the Devil Carelinks, PO Box 152 Menai NSW 2234 AUSTRALIA www.carelinks.net www.realdevil.info John Epps THE DEVIL A BIBLICAL EXPOSITION OF THE TRUTH CONCERNING “THAT OLD SERPENT, THE DEVIL AND SATAN” AND A REFUTATION OF THE BELIEFS OBTAINING IN THE WORLD REGARDING SIN AND ITS SOURCE Sherwood & Co., 23 Paternoster Row, London 1842 Price 1/- Carelinks, PO Box 152 Menai NSW 2234 AUSTRALIA www.carelinks.net www.realdevil.info CONTENTS CHAPTER 1. ................................................................................................................. 1 The rule in the investigation of truth. Successful application in natural science. Why should not equal success attend its application to other truths? The method for establishing uniformity of opinion. The rule applied in the investigation of the Devil. The book of creation affords no knowledge of the Devil. The importance of a knowledge of the Devil. Great number of passages where the word ―devil‖ occurs in the Common Version, in which it is not in the original. No two words can mean the same thing. The true meaning of the word Diabolos. Proofs from the Common Version of this meaning. The substitution of the true meaning for the untrue much more useful and instructive. ....................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 2 ................................................................................................................ 11 Man possesses a threefold nature. The opposition between the institutions of society and the commands of Christ. Submission of self. Means to obtain this submission. False-accusation state of mind. Passages illustrative. Parable of the tares. Parable of the sower of the seed. The misintroduction of the Devil into the Old Testament. ......................................................................................................... 11 CHAPTER 3. ............................................................................................................... 16 The term SATAN. Who Satan is must be learned from Revelation. Satan applied to express ―adversary.‖ No badness of meaning essentially connected with the word Satan. The Satan in the Book of job an idolator. Peter, the apostle, a Satan. .......... 16 CHAPTER 4. ............................................................................................................... 22 ―Satan indicates any state or condition adverse. Adverse to health - adverse in circumstances - adverse in state of mind. The ―Satan‖ in the Revelations. ............. 22 CHAPTER 5. ............................................................................................................... 30 Jesus is never said, in the original Scriptures, to have cast out ―devils.‖ God, the author of language, must know its right use. The universal extension of the Greek language. Daimon, as understood by the Greeks, the Romans, the Jews — a ―departed human ‗spirit‘,‖ Natural gods of the heathens. The Cerriti and the Larvati. BeeIzebub. Paul‘s speech at Athens. Demons believe. The worship of demons. Paul‘s answer to the expediency, sham charity men of his day. .............................. 30 CHAPTER 6. ............................................................................................................... 38 Possession indicated by certain signs. Madness an indication. The Pythia. Unusual bodily contortions. The Gadarene and Gergesene demoniacs were madmen. Lunatics. Epileptics. ................................................................................................. 38 i CHAPTER 7. ............................................................................................................... 43 The Gadarene and Gergesene demoniacs. Their dispossession, and the madness of the swine examined and explained. The language of our Saviour and of his Apostles correspond to the opinions of men. How the demoniacs confessed Christ. .................................................................................................................................. 43 CHAPTER 8. ............................................................................................................... 49 Temptation, its nature. Trial. The source of temptation. The erroneousness of many notions on this subject. ............................................................................................. 49 CHAPTER 9. ............................................................................................................... 52 The source of trial. The lust (epithumia). The misapplication of the word. The steps in the production of a sin. Desire, its nature. Numerous passagesin which epithumia is applied to a desire, decidedly good. ..................................................................... 52 CHAPTER 10. ............................................................................................................. 55 The history of the trial of our Lord. The rule to guide as to a passage of Scripture being interpreted literally or figuratively. This rule applied to the three trials of Christ, and the impossibility of the account being literally true. ............................. 55 CHAPTER 11. ............................................................................................................. 60 The peculiar work which Christ had to perform. The character, his humanity in which he had to perform that work. Te difference between the first Adam and the second Adam. The trials of the Lord shown to be mere mental states, through which his mind passed. ....................................................................................................... 60 CHAPTER 12. ............................................................................................................. 65 The atheism of believing in a being called the Devil. The absurdity of such belief. The obstacles to the removal of the belief in such a being. ..................................... 65 Carelinks, PO Box 152 Menai NSW 2234 AUSTRALIA www.carelinks.net www.realdevil.info i THE DEVIL CHAPTER 1. The rule in the investigation of truth. Successful application in natural science. Why should not equal success attend its application to other truths? The method for establishing uniformity of opinion. The rule applied in the investigation of the Devil. The book of creation affords no knowledge of the Devil. The importance of a knowledge of the Devil. Great number of passages where the word ―devil‖ occurs in the Common Version, in which it is not in the original. No two words can mean the same thing. The true meaning of the word Diabolos. Proofs from the Common Version of this meaning. The substitution of the true meaning for the untrue much more useful and instructive. SOUND thinking, that is, cultivated and well-directed common sense, applied to the discovery of truth, either natural or revealed, has followed the rule, That nothing ought to be believed as true, unless its truth can be demonstrated by an appeal to the facts recorded in the book of Creation, or to those revealed in the book of Revelation. Rigid adherence, of late years, by the naturalists to this rule, in reference to the subject of natural, creation-written truths, has been the cause of immense progress in natural science: and is it not, without any improper presumption, to be inferred that a similar rigid adherence to this rule in matters relating to the spiritual, Bible-written truths, will be attended with equal progress? It is a lamentable fact that, in the matter of rigid adherence to this rule of truth investigation and truth demonstration, ―the children‖ who study the things of the natural order are far in advance of, ―are wiser in their generation than the children‖ who study the things of the spiritual order. It is from this cause that such diversities of opinions prevail among professed followers of Christ; an evil, not to be remedied, as the Romanists would remedy it, by squeezing all men‘s minds into one universal square, impudently called ―the mind of the church‖; or, as Milton describes the patent uniforming process, ―starching them into the stiffness of uniformity by tradition.‖ This is not the method; but the only method is, to establish as binding upon all inquirers after truth the rule already recorded, that nothing in spiritual matters ought to be believed as true, unless its truth can be demonstrated by an appeal to the original scriptures, and this to the satisfaction of every well constituted, truth loving mind. This rule, once generally recognised and practically carried out, will make all of one mind, will establish a uniformity of opinion, founded on the conviction, and not on the suspension, of the understanding. Men of science are of one mind in regard to chemical, mechanical, and mathematical facts; this oneness having been arrived at by rigidly adhering to the prescribed rule in studying the book of Creation. What, then, is there in spiritual subjects to prevent Milton‘s Prose Works, Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing 1 men, pursuing Revelation-recorded truths, arriving at a similar oneness of mind in regard to those truths recorded by the same divine wisdom, and guided by the same God of order as dictated the other book of instruction? Taking this rule as the guide, and holding the principles, that, Revelation being a truth discovery its truths were for discovery, and that these truths are to he discovered with a certainty as great as that connected with the Creation truths, it is proposed to consider the subject
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